Forging paste



United States FORGBNG PASTE Andre P. Huet, Paris, France No Drawing. Application August 10, 1955 Serial No. 527,653

Claims priority, application France September 17, 1954 1 Claim. (Cl. 252-30) The present invention relates to a paste for facilitating the forging of metals, for example the work performed by a tool when it penetrates a steel component heated at a convenient temperature. A lubricant such as graphite is usually employed and the tool is coated with the lubricant before it is introduced into the metal.

According to the present invention, a paste for facilitating the forging of metals contains as an essential constituent a quantity of very fine spherical particles of a thermally insulating material, for example glass or a refractory substance of a diameter of the order of, for example, 1 micron, and these spherical particles are suspended in a lubricating material which may be, for example, graphite. The mixture of the particles and graphite may be bound by an oil or grease which facilitates its application to the tool, punch or die used for forging the metal.

The spherical particles facilitate, without direct contact, the relative movement of the tool and the metal.

When, for example, it is intended to produce in known manner nipples or pipe unions on a header, it is usual to employ for the purpose a punch, and die, presented to either side of the wall of the header, the punch pene- 2,926,138 Patented Feb. 23, 1960 trating the wall and producing the nipple. According to the present invention the punch, or alternatively the die, is coated before the operation with the forging paste containing spherical particles of an insulating substance. The contact of the surface of the coated punch or die, with the steel heated at a high temperature immediately cools the metal to a degree sufficient for the spherical particles to remain solid and through their rolling action to ensure the easy movement of the punch or the die on the metal, the surrounding metal retaining its temperature suitable for forging without being excessively cooled by the tool which is separated from the metal by the layer of thermally insulating paste.

On the whole, the spherical particles act through their ability to roll and through the heat insulation which they provide. The paste according to the invention may contain, for example, the following volumetric proportions: /a spherical particles, /3 graphite powder and /3 oil or grease. These proportions can, of course, be varied to suit the metal to be forged and the forging temperature.

What I claim is:

A forging paste adapted to be applied to a forging tool to facilitate its action upon a metal being forged which consists essentially of substantially equal parts by volume of glass in the form of very fine spherical particles, graphite, and a fluid forging lubricant selected from the group consisting of a forging oil and a forging grease.

References Cited in the file of this patent Bastian: Metalworking Lubes (1951), pages l43 150, McGraW-Hill Co. 

